


The Subtleties of the Barbarian

by Genderhawk



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Coming Out, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Pre-Stream (Critical Role), The ships are only hinted at, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-24 20:08:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22003756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Genderhawk/pseuds/Genderhawk
Summary: For someone who looks as un-subtle as Yasha does, who rends enemies in two with a primal scream, Yasha keeps an awful lot close to her chest.  Molly is going to figure it out eventually.
Relationships: Beauregard Lionett/Yasha, Jester Lavorre/Yasha, Mollymauk Tealeaf & Yasha
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42





	The Subtleties of the Barbarian

**Author's Note:**

> Homophobia exists in this fic in the background and as part of the influence for character actions, someone asks a question that is transphobic but the person asked isn't offended and the question was asked from a place of honest love and wanting to be supportive and also it's barely mentioned. Neither of these things are dwelled on nor are they discussed in great detail.

Yasha wasn’t subtle at first glance, the barbarian with the massive sword and the delightful ombre hair stood out even without her substantial height that kept her visible in most crowds. Her emotions though? Her needs and desires? Those were the things that Molly was still figuring out how to read. It was a challenge, and he likes a challenge, so he practiced reading her face like he practiced his cards at first. Where she looked, so did he. They were already sharing a tent, as the most recent additions to the Fletching and Moondrop Carnival of Curiosities, so it wasn’t too hard to stick by her side even more than usual.

Three towns after Molly decided to decode his best friend, the sister of his heart and the woman who had become his near constant companion, he followed Yasha’s eyes from where her cheeks were just ever so slightly less pale than usual to the barmaid’s bosom. A bosom that is, in Molly’s estimation, quite nice and (barely) covered by a bodice with a neckline that flatters as it titlates. The glance is as quick as quick as the flash of… grief? Some kind of dark emotion that was related to a past that neither of them had bothered to discuss in depth. It was sheer luck that Molly noticed the glance or the pain that followed, but he’d have to think about that later because for now there was an audience to gather and then a show to run.

***

Molly hissed softly in surprise more than pain as he lay in his nest of blankets, pillows, and other assorted fabrics that he may or may not have tossed around that morning when he tasted his own blood welling up from where he had bitten his lip a little too hard. Running a forked tongue over the puncture wound left by the sharpest of his teeth, Molly tasted the blood. His own blood wasn’t unfamiliar and neither was the shifting in the pile of furs that comprised Yasha’s bed. It was the body language that Molly had come to associate with Yasha bringing up a topic that was hard for her to discuss. It reminded him of when yasha had asked if he was a man or a woman and he smiled at the memory, it was the first time anyone had bothered to ask. The anxiety was more noticeable as time went on. Eventually, when the beat of Yasha’s heart was audible and faster than it should be after midnight without any apparent danger, Molly sat up. He wasn’t patient and he didn’t wait well.

“Yasha, love, copper for your thoughts?” He turned so that he was seated upright and fully facing his anxious friend.

Yasha, with only a few seconds of a delay and in a more believable lie than usual, startled as if she hadn’t already been wide awake and as tense as a drawn bow. Several long moments later, long enough that Molly almost prompted again, she speaks. 

“I was… remembering… Molly, do you remember that night, a little after you found me? When I asked if you were a man or a woman?” Her voice was softer than her usual midnight whisper, hesitant at best but it almost sounded scared to Molly’s ears. He nodded his agreement as he wondered what she could be so scared to say because yes, the way her fingers twitched in the edge of her sleep clothes.

“I was remembering that night myself...” Molly adds as a prompt when he can’t wait patiently for Yasha to speak again for even a moment longer. He waits again, the tension that was radiating from Yasha’s side of the tent growing even heavier in the air as he waited until he could tolerate the silence no longer.

As he opens his mouth to speak the words rush out of Yasha in a stream that, for Molly, would be considered slower than average but that is downright rushed by the standards set by Yasha’s normal speech patterns.

“I’m not interested in men. Not for… for marriage or…. Or anything like that.” The breath that Yasha takes is sharp and quick, but it soothes the shaking that started in her hands as she began to speak. Molly smiles and opens his mouth to speak before she cuts him off again “I like… I like women that way. Not men.”

Molly’s next breath is an exhale of relief as his grin widens and he lets out a laugh before answering.

“Who wouldn’t?” Molly laughs again with a wink before sobering “I love you Yash, you’re like family and nothing can change that. Nothing. Ever.”

The laugh that echoes through the camp earns a groan and a few less than polite requests for quiet from the surrounding tents.

***

The next few months go by with very few changes except for the fact that Molly and Yasha exchange opinions on nearly woman they interact with, using the secret language of looks and smiles and subtle touches between family until the night comes and they are able to discuss the women of the day in the privacy of their shared tent.

***

The next time Molly catches the split second look of desire that Yasha directs at a woman happens mere seconds before the third. And it happens in Trostenwald, on the day that would begin their next adventure.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos keep the creativity coursing!
> 
> I'm on tumblr as Genderhawk and my ask is always open for prompts (which I'll write for if I'm inspired)!


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